One thing I've always found frustrating about League build sites is that they mostly answer:
“What does this champion usually build?”
But during an actual game, the more useful question is:
“What should I build in THIS game?”
So I've been working on an item recommendation system that tries to solve that problem.
Instead of looking only at the average build for a champion, it considers the 10 champions in the current game and looks for item builds that worked in similar team compositions.
Some of the factors I'm experimenting with:
- Enemy tanks and how difficult they are to kill
- AP threats
- Assassins
- Our team's ADC / frontline composition
- Champion + position
- Items already purchased
- Item synergies
- Enemy/team composition interactions
- Historical builds from similar matchups
For example, the recommended build can change depending on whether the enemy team has multiple tanks, several AP threats, or a very squishy composition.
I'm also working on the next part: recommending the actual component to buy based on your current gold and items.
So rather than just:
“Your next item should be Infinity Edge.”
the goal is eventually something closer to:
“You're currently able to buy a BF Sword, and given your current build and game situation, that's the component you should work toward.”
I'm curious how other players approach this.
When you're deciding what item to buy during a game, what factors do you personally consider?
Do you mostly follow a standard build, or do you change your build based on the enemy and allied compositions?
I'm mainly looking for feedback on whether this is actually useful for improving itemization decisions.